Hello all my experienced IP friends! I need your help. My weight loss has slowed to a CRAWL. Seriously, a crawl. I am losing less than a pound a week and my coach and I cannot figure out why so I was hoping that some of you may be able to shed some light on this issue for me and perhaps have some suggestions. I know my body will lose the weight how it wants to lose it but I want to make sure I am not doing anythign to hamper my weight loss.

This is what a regular day looks like for me:

Breakfast- Chocolate RTD in coffee or by itself, potassium calcium and multi
Lunch- Restricted and 2 cups of veggies (cucumber, spinach or peppers) I usually have two cups of ONE type of veggie, maybe that is my issue and I should add in some more variety
Dinner- 7 oz of protein (chicken breast, lean turkey, extra lean ground beef or fish) and 2 cups of vegetables steamed or cooked in one teaspoon of olive oil (zucchini, turnips, brocolli, cauliflower) Again, I usually have two cups of one vegetable. If I don't cook my veggie in olive oil, I have some lettuce and put oil and vinegar over the top of that- I usually have some sort of lettuce at least once a day- I also have my multi and two cal-mags at this point
Snack- Either a vanilla RTD or jello and two cal-mags

As far as activity wise, I don't do much. I weight train 2-3 times a week and walk the dog a few times a week. I might need to increase the amount of walking I do.

Any suggestions? Perhaps I just need some more variety in my diet. I have no idea at this point but I am hoping to get some help :) Perhaps my body just needs to go through an adjustment period at this time.

OH! And I also have at least 120 ounces of water with 16 of that being green tea in the afternoon. I have around two teaspoons a day of splenda in my coffee.

Lalison, I feel your pain! You and I have very similar numbers. I have been super critical of my food, water and exercise intake as well. Not sure this will help you, but things I'm trying include: 1. Moving more - trying to get more walks in - seems to help my numbers, 2. Drink more - I found that while I typically drank 3 to 5 liters, I was dwindling to 2 or 3... 3. Eating more fish; less red meat.... after analyzing my food in MFP, I thought I needed to keep my calories under 900.

Good luck to you! Cannot wait to get to Phase 2, 3, and 4 with you!
Jo

Hi, I don't know if I can help you much for the last 3 months my weight goes up then it goes down a little then up again and so on. I have bounced from phase 1 to phase 2 to phase 1 and now back to phase 2. Try something other than jello as I believe I read the ones we eat for cellulite don't get absorbed into our bodies (please correct me if I am wrong)... Now some questions for you? How long has this been going on? What have you tried? Have you tried bootcamping? did that help? I have tried skipping red meat doesn't really seem to help. I went on the maintenance thread for help, go have a look there for more suggestions. At this point if I don't lose over the next 10 days my coach is going to the head trainer for help. Has your coach asked anyone what they think? You can see by my weigh in weights the issue I have, is yours like that? Check out what the ladies said on maintenance...

Good luck to you, I know how hard this is believe me... but we will get there

eventually!:hug:

Try changing your routine. I think our bodies become accustom to what we eat - maybe you just need to surprise it! Posssibly a larger breakfast and lighter dinner. I know this is hard, because I am not a big breakfast eater! But - just a suggestion!

I can think of a couple of things, but I don't know that they will help. I'd try them for a couple of days, though

-- Eating 2 (of 4) cups of the same vegetable doesn't matter at all, unless they're all high carb vegetables. I'd try 2-4 cups of spinach, or spinach plus mushrooms, bok choy, or cucumbers for a couple of days. Whatever, make sure you don't go over 30 real carbs a day including the IP products.

If you aren't moving around a lot, try to get in 8-10,000 steps a day. The dog will love it. ;) And if you're not getting much activity, maybe 120 grams of water, give your weight, is too much. The formula is 1/2 oz pure water per pound and if you're compensating for 24 ounces of coffee and tea that gets you to about 100 g -- when you're not exercising. Hope this helps a little.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! This has been going on for the past month. I have never been an incredibly big loser and have never lost anything over 4 lbs in a week during my whole time on this diet. My body seems to like the slow and steady path. I tried bootcamping in the past and it slowed my losses incredibly. My body tends to need a bit higher carbs though maybe now that I am much closer to goal, it needs a bit less. My coach is very against no restricteds and requires that I have one daily but I could always go against her wishes. Haha. I will really try anything at this point.


I never thought I could be getting too much water! I was thinking I should incorporate more activity. I think I will start with trying to get 8,000 steps a day and work my way up to 10,000. When adding in walking it isn't necessary to add another packet, correct? Since walking isn't a strenuous activity.

At this point my weight is still going down but under a pound every week. I have yet to have a gain on the diet, which I am extremely thankful for but my weight just isn't going anywhere.

I never thought about having a bigger breakfast. Maybe for a few days out of the week I should have my protein for breakfast and have products for lunch, dinner and snack. That might shake my routine up enough for my body to start losing again. I think protein and one cup of veggies for breakfast a few days a week is a good plan and I will try that this next week! Thanks!

I really appreciate you all chiming in to help. I will let you know what I end up changing up and if it helps me at all! So far I will be moving more, incorporating bigger breakfasts and being more aware of my water intake. If it comes down to it, I will try a week of bootcamping and see if that helps.

Thanks again!

You're right, no need for another packet if you're walking, unless you're hitting 4+ miles an hour for over 45 minutes. Even then. . . ? I've always preferred a generous breakfast and tapering off later in the day. I don't hesitate to have a little salmon an egg for breakfast if I'm hungry. I just factor it in to the rest of the day. Having said that, I only do it about once a week. Good luck.

Hello ladies,

It seems NOTHING will work for me. I followed your suggestions and I haven't budged!

My coach wanted me to add in more substantial veggies so I have been eating more brocolli, zucchini, peppers, etc. She was worried I wasn't getting enough because I was eating cucumbers so often. This change hasn't seemed to have done anything for me.

I cut my water back to 100 oz as was suggested here, which my coach agreed that I may be getting too much. This also hasn't helped.

I haven't gotten quite enough activity. I am slowly working it in so maybe that will start to show a change as I get more and more.

I have started changing the time I eat my protein. I had a few days of breakfast protein and a few of lunch protein and that still hasn't shocked my body to move.

I'm just not sure what is going on and I am getting very frustrated by it. I feel the diet is a waste of money if my weight simply won't budge. I know I should be patient but I have been on this diet for 9 months and I am getting very tired of it.

My birthday is this week and my coach is allowing me a cheat day, which I have decided will simply be a serving of dessert rather than a full blown cheat day. However, I am worried with such slow losses that this will just screw me up even more.

Anyways, thanks for letting me rant! I truly appreciate all of the support that you guys have given me.

I feel your pain, Have you tried going to phase 2 for a while? I did that for about 3 weeks and it worked for a while but I am still having slow down issues as well. This last 10 days my coach has said nothing other than what is on phase 1 sheet, no splenda or WF or additives to your drinks. I am thinking this hasn't really done anything but who knows. If I still haven't lost 5 lbs my coach is going to the head trainer with my diet and see if there is something we are all missing. I will keep you posted.

Perhaps I should go to phase two for awhile. I will talk to my coach about it tomorrow. I guess I should also get back to being strict on protocol, like you said. No stevia, no mio, no WF. Yeesh. Time to have a real talk with my coach. I am ready to be done with this but apparently it isn't done with me yet.

I know losing 100 lbs takes time but I am feeling very impatient!

I hope you figure out what works for you, 2ride!

I think a rant is in order, (she said at her pompous best). :D

Seriously, there are a couple of things I don't know or understand, though. Frustration I can certainly understand and sympathize with. And it's probably even more frustrating because you have done so well. . .up to this point.

I understand ditching the cucumbers. Low nutrition and not really that low in carbohydrates given their lack of value. But why did she suggest high carb vegetables? Why not spinach and endive. High nutrition, high fiber, low carbs. And I sure don't understand approving the cheat. To what end? Knock you out of ketosis? Start a yo-yo pattern of in and out of ketosis to screw up the so far good effect on the pancreas?

But my real question is whether or not you are not only petite but small boned. Here's a simple way to figure it out. http://www.am-i-fat.com/body_frame_size.html

If you're small boned and 5', and not active, it's possible you don't need more than 1200 or a few more calories to maintain your present weight off IP. If you're eating a restricted IP product, higher calorie (and carb) vegetables, AND 8 ounces of meat a day, you may be within 200 give-or-take calories of that level and your system may have adjusted (something systems are really good at, I think) to the lower number. Hence no loss.

I could be all wet here, and totally off the mark because there are too many variables I don't know -- age, body frame, exercise level, etc. But if you should fit into this hypothetical picture, maybe you need to readjust, downward, your IP intake. Just a thought.

I agree that you should mix things up. I think your body is used to the same thing day in, day out... Maybe eat your protein meal for lunch instead of dinner. Alternate between Phase 1 and Phase 2 days for one week, rather than going all the way to Phase 2. Make a list of veggies that you haven't had at all for a few weeks and make a plan to get those in at least twice. Move the oil to lunchtime with your veggies... Just some thoughts.

Well my wi wasn't great! don't get me wrong I did lose 3lbs in 10 days but if you look at the 4 weeks I have lost 1 lb in total. My coach doesn't really know, am going to send my info to the head office (I hope). So long story short, I think I am moving on. I will do phase 2 one more week and start phase 3 next tuesday. I hope I will reach my goal in maintenance. I am looking forward to phase 3 breakfasts. I am away from home this week so have lots of time at night to go over phase 3 information and come up with a plan as I will be starting phase 3 during the week and will have to plan how to do this at work. I am actually excited to try this greek yogurt everyone was talking about, and to have fruit again. Thanks all for your advise and knowledge I think I am good with this plan and can be proud that I lost 90 lbs and not 100... that is still to come. Have a great night :hug:

Hear, hear! I was going to throw in some smilies but nothing was really adequate. :hug:

I am SO proud of you. Check out my food diary on fatsecret. My phase 3 breakfasts are also all saved as meals and I have shared them. Search for "Ideal Protein Phase 3 Breakfast" and hopefully they come up. What I really like about the site is that you can bring in meal, then tweak the individual components (change brand of bread, yogurt) easily...

You will do great in maintenance. Fruit is THE best. Strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries are my faves.

I normally have that with greek yogurt, then some protein bread, butter, and vegemite (yes, the little Australian kid in me still loves her Vegemite). Feel free to delete that from the breakfasts if you consider it icky, which I'm sure most Americans do.